Dr. Martin Luther King Discussion

I’m studying for my Philosophy class and don’t understand how to answer this. Can you help me study?

• responding to two opinions, your response needs to be pertinent and of substance. Stating that you agree or disagree is not sufficient. You must substantiate your responses.
• Above all, they must be respectful and worthy of intellectual honesty, sincerity, and humility. Responses must be a minimum of 150 words
• Opinion #1 :
• The two Americas as they exist today can be described as the wealthy, and thriving America and/or the poor, and struggling America. It is said that there are two Americas because there are many wealthy people who live well and can provide for themselves and their loved ones but, there are others who are not so fortunate, and they struggle every day to even have a meal on their table. Things have gotten a little better from Martin Luther King Jr.’s days to today, but poverty is still a big problem in our lives.
• The hierarchies, segregation, discrimination based on class and race push the already vulnerable sections of the society into deep poverty. For example, a woman is facing gender-based discrimination and is paid less and no incentives are provided to her when compared to her male counterparts. These social structures directly or indirectly lead to poverty. To remove the poverty which is embedded in the social structure we need to practice inclusion. This inclusion should be both financially and socially. For example, when the minority communities are given equal opportunities to participate in the education system and employment, they develop skills and education that helps them to be part of the mainstream financial system. Through which family by family they lift each other from the well of poverty. This can only be removed by promoting equality in the social structure. Welfare policies can also help them suppress communities to come out of poverty as they provide monetary and other types of benefits.
• The structural theory of poverty says people are in poverty because they find themselves in holes in the economic system that deliver them inadequate income. Because individual lives are dynamic, people don’t sit in those holes forever. Whereas the individual theory of poverty says people are in poverty because they are lazy, uneducated, ignorant, or otherwise inferior in some manner.
• The micro-interventions consist of supportive counseling, education and training, and case management interventions for individual and family client systems and the types of group interventions generalist social workers facilitate. They can help fight against poverty because these provide those people in desperate needs with what they require to live, by helping these people get jobs, education, etc., we are decreasing our poverty levels.

Opinion #2

Dr. Martin Luther King was an extraordinary man who advocated for the end of racial discrimination; he desired for Blacks to be treated equally to Whites. During that time, in the 1960s, he spoke at Stanford about the existence of two Americas. According to him, there is a wealthy America along with a poor America. His ideas although to stop racial discrimination also included ending poverty once and for all. Poverty unfortunately is something delicate that cannot be ended in a day or two; it will take a while before the U.S is rid of the poor completely. However with the social structure here in the U.S poverty will not end. The social structure set in the U.S is all based upon what social class, race, gender, etc. one pertains to allowing people to differentiate from each other. In the United States, the affluent are the most benefited in order to keep the economy booming. How businesses are operated in the social structure of the U.S along with some other things add to poverty. By only having (x) amount of employees, paying them minimum wage, and only offering them part- time jobs the workers have no means in which to survive in the U.S. As mentioned beforehand, race, class, gender, etc. all contribute to the perpetuating poverty. Gender roles play many parts in poverty. For example, if a women is black or in another minority then they tend have an influx of poor people in comparison to white females of any age. On top of the fact that the women’s race and or ethnicity tends to characterize whether or not they get a job, men make more money then them in every profession. A single working mom would not be able to maintain her and the children with such a low income or none at all depending on the cause. Another contribution of poverty is social class which is made up of: upper, upper-middle, middle, working, and lower. The opportunities that one might receive in the highest parts of the social class might not be available for the lower class. For instance, getting a good education might not be obtainable for someone of a lower social class. This leads to no improvement in their lives consisting of the same low or no income and living the same lifestyle as they do. In my perspective, the only way to solve poverty in this social structure is to provide children with a good education, provide more people with jobs, and to not discriminate others based on their race, class, etc. The structural theory is based upon the economic system that is instilled in the U.S which people tend to blame for the cause of poverty, while the other cause of poverty may simply be having children to take care of, losing a job, laziness, etc. Essentially, the issue with both is that there is nothing offered to people struggling with poverty. Some have a way out while others do not. Micro- interventions are when individuals help out others on a smaller scale. They tend to help out individuals close to them, their family, or anyone they might feel inclined to help. Overall, these actions caused by micro-interventions can help reduce poverty by helping people who truly need it and could not get out on their own.